MS. Letter to Lady Beaumont.
[811] 1835.
To Him who dwells in Heaven will be the smoke
MS. Letter to Lady Beaumont.
X
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
(LANDING AT THE MOUTH OF THE DERWENT, WORKINGTON)[812]
[I will mention for the sake of the friend who is writing down these notes, that it was among the fine Scotch firs near Ambleside, and particularly those near Green Bank, that I have over and over again paused at the sight of this image. Long may they stand to afford a like gratification to others!—This wish is not uncalled for, several of their brethren having already disappeared.—I. F.]
Dear to the Loves, and to the Graces vowed,
The Queen drew back the wimple that she wore;
And to the throng, that on the Cumbrian shore
Her landing hailed, how touchingly she bowed![813]
And like a Star (that, from a heavy cloud[814] 5
Of pine-tree foliage poised in air, forth darts,[815]
When a soft summer gale at evening parts
The gloom that did its loveliness enshroud)
She smiled;[816] but Time, the old Saturnian seer,
Sighed on the wing as her foot pressed the strand, 10
With step prelusive to a long array
Of woes and degradations hand in hand—
Weeping captivity, and shuddering fear
Stilled by the ensanguined block of Fotheringay![817]